


In the Straits of Malacca

by anavolena



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen, Young Will Graham
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 10:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12505056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anavolena/pseuds/anavolena
Summary: Will Graham's father tells Will a story.





	In the Straits of Malacca

Will saw the look settle on his father's face. He'd trained himself to watch for it, wait for it, and be ready when it came. 

"Please. Tell me one of your stories." 

Will had learned this was the correct formulation to coax out whatever memory had drifted to the forefront of his father's mind. Polite, attentive, playing to the pretension his father could choose what story would now be told rather than feeling the need to share whatever was stalking his mind at the moment. 

His father put down the tool in his hand. He was of course aware how closely Will watched him, how desperately Will desired a deeper connection, how wide ranging his son's mind was. How desperately he wanted to foster that wonder.

Will's father let his face soften, almost to a smile, reached for the beer in the cooler, and sat next to Will as he twisted off the cap. 

"Do you remember where the Straits of Malacca are?"

"Between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra! One of the most important shipping lanes in the world!" Will could see the map in his head, and then the choppy waters. In his mind the area was always shrouded in smoke from nearby fires. He knew Krakatoa was at the south end of Sumatra so he couldn't help imagining the dull thrum of a volcanic threat.

"I was crew on a freighter headed for Singapore. We were in the Straits. It had been a boringly easy trip. I was on night watch. It was so quiet and dull I had actually started sweeping the deck to entertain myself, if you can imagine! The water was so calm and the night so clear."

Will's mental image changed focus, like a wipe. The choppy, smokey tightness replaced with open clear nighttime skies. Will realized he didn't know enough about what the sky should look like, he made a note to read more about constellations. Was the moon full? He wanted to ask but he knew better than to interrupt his father. He practiced listening to both his father and his own thoughts. 

"Big old noisy freighter, got used to just hearing it drone on an on...and then there was something different. Couldn't place it. So I stopped sweeping, and that's when I saw out of the corner of my eye three lights nearby. Way too low to be another freighter, moving too fast."

"Pirates?" Will knew they wouldn't be the pirates he read about in novels, but of course there they were, fully formed in his mind, peg legs and parrots and eye patches, standing aboard motor boats speeding towards his father. His heart quickened. 

"I was sure of it. I had a second of thinking what the fuck do I do now?"

Will's father cocked an eyebrow, enjoying Will's shared smile at the naughty word.

"Luckily we'd drilled enough and the training kicked in. Couldn't tell you what I did, aside from I shouted the alarm and ran to my station. I can't remember much except thinking I'd just met this wonderful woman..."

Will's mental diorama was stopped cold by his father's words. He knew, instinctually, his father was referring to his mother. He knew now why the moment had stuck in his father's mind, and he knew the story would be brought short. 

"We shined a light towards the boats. They knew we knew. They stopped, dropped back, and the threat was over. Boring trip resumed, soon we were in Singapore." 

Will's father drained the beer, not looking at Will. Will realized his father didn't know where the story would go when he started telling it. He felt a tinge of guilt along the thrill of getting a tiny hint of her, this woman he would never know. 

The elder Graham tossed the empty bottle back into the cooler. "I better get this job finished." 

Will imagined he was breathing in the smell the cool night salt sea, instead of the humid summer Lake Erie air. 

* * *

Hannibal saw the look settle on Will's face. He'd trained himself to watch for it, wait for it, and be ready when it came. 

"Will, tell me one of your stories."


End file.
